FIRST Technical Challenge (FTC) welcomes students from eighth to twelfth grade and has an environment that encourages students to teach each other and brainstorm together to create the best design possible for a robot that fits within an 18-inch cube.

In addition to building and programming the robot, students create an Engineering Notebook to document the whole process, which is reviewed by the judges at competitions. They also prepare a brief presentation for the judges in which they describe the mechanisms on the robot, the programming behind it, and how they overcame any issues they faced throughout the season.

This year’s game, named Rover Ruckus, primarily involves the scoring of minerals in the lander and depots and hanging on the lander. Due to great interest in joining the team, we have 2 teams competing this season, 3543 and 6541.

Our FTC team 3543 has excelled in past years, winning the Think Award in addition to being finalists for the PTC Design Award, Rockwell Collins Innovate Awards, the Control Award and Inspire Award.